Pond Boss Forums STOCKING A NEW POND Creating the food chain Green sunfish and Bluegill

I have a 6 acre lake that has a 6 acre non flowing creek that leads to it. I'm trying to create an environment with some large LMB and plenty of fish for kids to catch. The LMB population appears to be healthy and growing and as of now, not over populated. I stocked 2500 CNBG and 500 RES in April...all 4 to 5 inches. I have two feeders. Before stocking, I had an abundant population of sunfish....GSF, I'm fairly sure.

So here are my questions....

Are GSF considered bad forage due to their poor reproduction?
Did I do anything wrong by adding CNBG and RES?
Could someone verify that the attached pictures are of a GSF and a CNBG. (I will have to the pics later)

Thanks and I look forward to some insight on how these fish will get along, reproduce, and provide food to the LMB!

The picture of the GSF is correct, and I believe the other one is as well. I don't know how to tell the difference between small BG and CNBG tho.

I think the stocking was fine. Do you have any idea what types, numbers and sizes of other fish are in your pond?

The only thing "wrong" with GSF is that they will compete with smaller LMB for food, and that they probably will not support a large LMB population due to their reproductive rate. You should be O.K. if the CNBG can get a foot hold and start reproduction.

There are some crappie. My neighbor said he put 6 spawning females in there several years ago (my neighbor owns property around half the lake). So I catch about 1 crappie for every 75 LMB that I catch...they are usually 1 to 2 lbs. There are also several types of catfish in there. I catch plenty of 6 to 10 inch bass and they alway are at least 90 % of their relative weight.

Will the CNBG have problems establishing with all of the GSF?

Will the CNBG have problems establishing with all of the GSF?

Probably not if there is enough food. It may take a while.

Do you see the GSF at the feeders ?

Here's what I think will happen.
First, the bluegill will become established. The redear might...if they have plenty of weedy habitat that harbors snails.
The green sunfish numbers will diminish over the next three years to the point that your catch rates of them will diminish to almost nothing. By then, the bluegill will have some nice sized adults, and based on your harvest of largemouth bass, bluegill numbers could continue to be in balance.
Here's why all this will happen.
Green sunfish, even though they have a larger mouth and can compete against fish with similar mouth size, only reproduce once a year.
Bluegill can eat smaller meals, ultimately depriving green sunfish the heartiest of meals. Bluegill, in Alvord, Texas, will reproduce four to five times yearly.
Bottom line...bass eat all year and when that young age class of green sunfish comes off the nest, their lives will be cut short by an expanding bass population.
Bluegill eat smaller items than green sunfish and they reproduce considerably more, so bluegills will have a long term dominance opportunity the green sunfish don't have.
Green sunfish are predators, limited by their mouth size and how large they can grow. A two pound bass will suck down a full grown green sunfish like my little grandson inhales a popsicle in this heat.
Speaking of which...if your pond evaporates and dries, all this advice is moot.

Wow, that is a horrible bed time story.

Bob....thanks for your insight! It's hard to tell since most of the fish at the feeders are 4 to 8 inches, but I think it is 80 to 90 percent GSF at the feeders. The creek and lake are only 5 years old...built for erosion control by the county but surrounded by private property.

I do see some rather large catfish at 1 feeder. I'd say some of them are 10 pounds but 95 percent of the fish at the feeders are sunfish. Both of my feeders are in the creek and water depths are between 8 and 15 feet but plenty of timber for cover? Does 1 of the feeders need to be in the lake?

Your right, it has been HOT and DRY! The water level has been slowly dropping, but surprisingly not as bad as in previous years. I think that's because it is finally sealing up since it's only 5 years old. I'd say it's lost 4 feet since the beginning of the year. The lake still is at 18 feet at it's deepest.

Hey neighbor, don't sweat the Green Sunfish. Like Bob says, they can't cut it when it comes to reproduction. It took 5 years for mine to finally go. However, I have some in a forage pond and am restocking them along with the BG and CNBG.

If your lake is still 18 feet deep, you do not have to worry as much as some of us others about your lake going dry.

Wel I spent the weekend fishing with family and friends. My friends and I caught about 30 LMB all healthy and fat. My kids and I fished for sunfish with worms. The kids were pulling the in faster than I could take them off. I was surprised that most of their fish were BG/CNBG and not GSF.

I assume the CNBG have spawned once offside since putting them in in April? We caught a couple that were 6 to 8 inchesand plenty as small as 3 inches.

I'm posting some pics along with 1 of some BG beds. I think? The beds were in 2 to 3 feet of water.

Those are spawning beds in the first pic. The second and third pics both look like native(northern) BG not CNBG.

Thanks for the clarification on the BG pictures. I wasn't sure if they were CNBG or native. I only stocked CNBG but there were definitely plenty of other types of sunfish in there before I added CNBG and RES.